Effect of Phosphorous on West Nile Virus Replication: Combining Experiments with Modeling A recent study (Crowder at al., 2013) found that prevalence of WNV was increased in mosquitoes and birds near agricultural activity relative to natural environment.  We believe that the excessive use of fertilizers, whose main component is , may have influenced the global …

The effect of climate variation on shrimp reproductive strategies Reproductive strategies comprise the timing and frequency of reproductive events and the number of offspring per reproductive event, depending on factors such as climate conditions. Studying how the reproductive strategy of species varies along the latitudinal gradient can help us understand and predict how they will …

Using Little’s Law in Stochastic Modeling Stochastic models are used when there is random behavior in the model. These models come with assumptions. In the case of a continuous-time Markov chain, it is assumed that arrivals are sampled from a Poisson distribution and that the waiting times are indepen-dent and exponentially distributed. Making these assumptions …

Phytoplankton dynamics in Lake George, Florida Phytoplankton plays a key role in  lake’s ecosystem as a primary production. The key environmental factors that affect the dynamic of phytoplankton are nutrient availability, water temperature and water discharge.  In Lake George, Florida, Cyanobacteria were considered to be the dominant phytoplankton group. However the recent study show that …

Genetic competence switching in Streptococcus mutans:  Bacterial circuitry for exploiting internal and external heterogeneity Bacteria probe their environment and exchange information through a chemical signaling mechanism known as quorum sensing.  Quorum sensing systems can be very complicated, involving multiple signals that can be tuned to respond to, or even exploit, physical and chemical heterogeneity in …

Diffusion Model related to  Low and High Pathogenic Avian Influenza in Bird Populations and its Numerical Study The ODE model related to dynamics of low pathogenic avian influenza (LPAI) and high pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) in bird population was proposed by Maia Martcheva and others. In this talk, I will cover following two aspects: 1) The model …

Effect of Phosphorous on West Nile Virus Replication: Combining Experiments with Modeling

Predicting disease outbreak in models of aquaculture Infectious Salmon Anemia (ISA) virus (ISAv) is an Orthomyxovirus which causes ISA in a variety of finfish including Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar L.).  The disease has resulted in large mortality events and associated economic losses to the salmon culture industries in nearly all major salmon producing countries.  We …

Approximating the probability of invasion in discrete stochastic population models When an individual with a novel trait is introduced in a new environment, we would like to understand what drives the likelihood that its lineage will persist. In deterministic population models, whether the invasive population “succeeds” often depends on whether the parameters of the system …

Spatial and temporal dynamics of dengue in southeast Asia Dengue viruses exist as four antigenically distinct serotypes DENV1-DENV4 that interact with each other in multiple immune-mediated mechanisms.  One of these mechanisms, immune-mediated enhancement, through which immunity derived from one serotype leads to either enhanced disease or enhanced viral replication of subsequent infections, has been the focus of …